The Throwaway Baby
by low-dtermination
Summary: Axel is the youngest baron in the kingdom. Roxas is the son of a midwife. Both of them never thought that they would meet at the birth of Axel's child. AkuRoku


Disclaimer: I do not own the Kingdom Hearts characters and such and such.

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The door of the meager-looking cottage burst open to reveal an important-looking man, striding in as if he owned the place. He took a sweeping glance of the small room. His eyes landed on the young boy who was sitting by a table, peeling potatoes.

"Boy," he acknowledged, "Where is Madam Strife? My lord is in dire need of her services."

Roxas Strife frowned suspiciously. "She has gone out to treat a man in a neighbouring town. She won't be home till tomorrow."

A look of panic struck the man's face and he began pulling at his very short beard. "What shall I do? My lord's lady is in labour and the baby won't wait – well, we can't exactly ask it to wait, can we? All the healers have gone on a confounded pilgrimage. Nobody else has the knowledge…" He continued to ramble until Roxas stood up, half in annoyance, half to offer his services.

"I have learned some knowledge of medicine from my mother," he said, wiping his hands on the front of his shirt. "Perhaps I can be of assistance."

"Excellent!" The man didn't wait for Roxas to reply. He grabbed the young boy's hand and pulled him out of the cottage and onto a chestnut horse that had been waiting outside. He climbed onto the horse in front of Roxas and made it run fast to the large mansion sitting on top of the nearest hill.

Roxas froze. That was the home of the baron! Surely the baron had other healers in his service to even think about hiring the services of a midwife. Then again, the did mention that the healers were away.

But Roxas wasn't even a midwife! He was only the son of a midwife. If he screwed up…

The young boy had a fleeting vision of a guillotine before him, with his mother and brother lining up behind him – all in line for the noose.

They rode across the lowered drawbridge and over a black moat. The horse stopped in the courtyard and Roxas was once again dragged by the man into the mansion. Because of their fast pace, Roxas couldn't concentrate on the route the man was taking him.

A right turn, then a left turn, enter a sitting room and go through the left door on the other side of the room, left turn…Roxas lost himself. But everywhere they went, luxury screamed from every corner. Red velvet hung from the walls and cream-soft carpet whispered beneath his peasant shoes; it felt like being in an alternate dimension.

Finally, the man stopped and released his arm, which had gone half-numb from the man's relentless grip. They were in a very large bedroom. It was, by far, the largest Roxas had ever seen. The ceiling was as high as two cottages stacked atop one another and the room was furnished with every luxurious furniture ever possible being fit into a room without looking overdone.

Roxas spotted a large four-poster bed with thin curtains in the middle of the room. Several ladies were huddled against one side, peering through the curtains to comfort the one occupying the bed. There was also a man by the bed. But compared to the ladies who were cooing comforting words and wiping the brow of the bed's occupant, the man looked nonchalant. He was simply sitting on a chair with his legs crossed arrogantly and looking rather annoyed.

The man who brought Roxas here bowed to this annoyed-looking man. "My lord, I have brought someone."

The man in the chair looked at his servant. Red hair, Roxas noticed. The baron had red hair; as bright as ripe apples but apples did not look as dangerous the baron. Apples didn't have strange dark markings underneath their eyes either.

The baron flicked his gaze over to Roxas. "This is the midwife?" he asked with a raise of his eyebrow.

"No, my lord," replied the servant quickly. "The midwife wasn't in. But this boy claimed to have some knowledge with medicine, so I brought him here."

"He will do," said the red-haired baron with a wave of his hand. The servant led Roxas to the bed. He shooed the women away and let Roxas examine his patient. It was a young lady. Her face was pale and contorted with pain. She had bit her lip to keep from screaming but blood from her bottom lip now dribbled down her sweat-soaked neck.

Roxas took a deep breath and calmly remembered all his mother had ever taught him. Now, to get to work…

* * *

_Mother…in my first attempt at delivering a child, the child survived. But the mother did not._

Roxas pulled the covers gently over the lady's face and clasped his hands in a short prayer. Behind him, the baby's cries were getting softer as one of the ladies-in-waiting brought it out of the room in a clean blanket. He had not expected childbirth to be so cruel a process. The mother cries and screams but the pain was deaf to all but her.

Now…how should he break this news to the baron? The man had left the room before Roxas had begun helping his wife. This wasn't strange since childbirth was never a pretty sight. But Roxas had expected him to come see his baby, at least.

"She's gone, is she?" The baron was standing by the door of the room, surprising Roxas with the silence of his entry.

Roxas nodded and silently wondered if the baron looked nonchalant all the time. "Would you like to see her?"

"It's fine," replied the baron quickly before Roxas could remove the covers from the dead lady's face. "Come with me. We need to discuss your fee."

Roxas got up obediently as followed the baron out of the room. They entered a long winding corridor with many doors that lead to who-knows-where. Finally, the baron entered a room that was as resplendent as the last one, with the exception of a vast fireplace settled into the wall opposite the four-poster bed.

There was a fire roaring in it, casting an unbearable heat into the room. The baron, however, was unfazed by it. He dropped onto a chair across the fire and beckoned for Roxas to come closer. Roxas was very much tempted to divest himself of his clothes. Within a matter of minutes, his clothes were soaked with his sweat and sticking to his skin. He could only wonder how the baron manages to stay cool and calm.

"You have done me a great service today, boy," said the baron. "How much would you ask for it?"

"Well sir," started Roxas, "I didn't really…I mean, your wife…"

The baron cleared his throat. "I didn't ask you about my late wife, boy. I asked about your fee."

Roxas was starting to get a very bad feeling; a feeling that the baron _didn't _care about his wife; didn't care that she had died while giving birth to his child.

As if the baron had read his thoughts through the look on his face, he sighed and crossed his legs arrogantly again. "Boy, have you heard of the term 'throwaway child'?" Roxas remained silent. "It's very common among the barons and lords. Being men of status, we are not bound to a single woman. Neither do we care for the fetters of fatherhood. So the solution we choose is to give the child we father to others – peasants mostly. We 'throw away' our children."

The baron laughed at the affronted look on Roxas' face. "Don't look at me like that, boy. There are many 'throwaway' children in this kingdom. I'm not surprised if you yourself are one. But it doesn't matter. Tell me how much you cost so that I can have you leave immediately."

"You're just going to give away your child," asked Roxas with disbelief and fury. "Just like that?"

The baron nodded without hesitation. "What? Would you like to have the child?"

"I would!" exclaimed Roxas. "It's better than giving it to someone else who doesn't know any better!"

The baron smirked. "Very well." He snapped his fingers. "Dusk, please bring in the baby."

The servant who had brought Roxas to the mansion stepped into the heated room with the baby in his arms. Roxas gave a loud cry and snatched the baby out of his arms. He ran out of the room where the temperature was more bearable. He glared at the baron who had come out of the room to watch Roxas with amusement.

"You are not human," accused Roxas. "The heat would've killed the baby!"

This only served to widen the baron's amused grin. "You are cute, aren't you?" he said teasingly. He swooped in and kissed Roxas full on the mouth before Roxas could even register what had happened. The baron left Roxas feeling stunned and violated with the baby in his arms, and laughed as he walked away.

Roxas wanted to hit him. He wanted to spit, stomp and yell out every profanity he knew at the spiteful baron. But the vision of the guillotine stopped him once more. He held the baby closer to his chest and made his way for home. He wondered how he was going to explain this one to his mother.

* * *

**A/N: I just found out that the girl I had a crush on is a boy. What should I do?**

To be continued in chap 2.


End file.
